Eroica
by Simon Cellan Jones
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DVD details
Actor: Anton Lesser, Claire Skinner, Ian Hart, Jack Davenport, Tim Pigott-SmithDirector: Simon Cellan Jones
Brand: Naxos OF America INC
Producer: Peter Maniura
Producer: Liza Marshall
Writer: Nick Dear
DVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown), DTS 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); German (Subtitled); English (Original Language), DTS 5.1; Italian (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-06-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Opus Arte
DVD Reviews of Eroica
DVD Review: LUIGI van BEETHOVEN & GARDINER: An implicit document on virtuosity.
Summary: 5 Stars
On another review I stated that is very difficult to write about music. Music is to be heard and then judged upon it's merits. A film is still much more difficult to conceive especially if it is coupled to a complete performance of the work. In this case Luigi van Beethoven's (that's how he signed this work before...see the movie please) Symphony No.3 acquired the name "Eroica" sometime after; it's not clear where or whom to attribute that name. No demerits here because of this minor factoid.
This DVD is all about the music firstly and the social environment as a background secondly. However, what makes this DVD an implicit document is not only the music but it's nuanced description of society as it was structured at the beginning of the 19 th. Century both in Vienna, Austria, and the implicit influence of France and Napoleon Bonaparte which in the end extended through the whole of Europe and basically to Moscow's doorsteps eventually.
This symphony by Luigi van Beethoven was his third and indeed was revolutionary in every aspect. It was not the first romantic orchestral work of the time; we probably have to go back in time and look at Gluck's opera music, especially his opera's "Orphee et Euridyce" and "Alceste."
However, revolutionary it certainly was. Sir John Eliot Gardiner's named his superb ensemble "Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique", a coincidence or a causality? Better let him explain that.
This incredible orchestra is predicated on performance with original period instruments. What we have here are valveless hunting horns instead of valved French Horns. Instead of modern clarinets old design (ca. 1770) Alto and Soprano clarinets (so it appears) are used, and the trumpets are valveless also and not at all like modern instruments. The tympani are played with wooden mallets (they were specified as such as such on the original score using the German term "Holz"). All together the sound, the melody and the harmony of the orchestra is altered; it's not what we normally hear. What we normally hear is Richard Wagner's conception of how Ludwig (not Luigi) van Beethoven should be played according to Wagner. Moreover now a days we also other Wagner emulator's conceptions of what Beethoven should sound like in their own minds. Is anybody playin Beethoven like he scored? Besides a handful like Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Norrington?
The result? An overwhellming perfomance by virtuosy...the musicians at their period instruments, and the conductor (Gardiner) with his absolute control of melodic-harmonic line and tempi which all add to the clarity of the lines. This is absolutely the best (my opinion) rendicion of Luigi van Beethoven's 3rd. Symphony I've ever heard. I've never seen a really satisfactory rendition of this work in my life so far until now. The tempi are Luigi's tempi, not Wagner's tempi, or Mahler's...Bernstein or...who cares?
As to the representation of the social environment in this movie all I can say is that, I as an Ethnomusicologist, even in a fictionalized story, I admire how through this movie the inner works of the social structure and culture of the times are dissected far beyond anything done so far. In comparison, I really like Amadeus' story but it has little to do with reality. This movie is as close a representation of reality as you can get.
This movie, this DVD, is a document which will remain for a long time as a reference in music history; I'll suspect many students will watch this movie as part of their curriculum in music history in colleges and universities.
FINAL WORDS: see the movie (DVD) and judge for yourself. No need to read these reviews, just watch the movie and be your own judge. Basically, no one these days has the opportunity to hear and see live that which Sir Roger Norrington once called (approximately - it was a long time ago) "...a tympani concerto as a symphony..." The Mannheim school of music really comes through here with their crescendos and diminuendos...all originating and controlled by the tympani and here the kettle drums are just glorious.
Description of Eroica
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